Just another ‘feel good’ the ‘recession doesn’t affect us in Sioux Falls’ story from Stormland TV. As usual, Mr. Schmidt puts on his rose colored glasses and tells us how great everything is in Sioux Falls;
“The economy has changed and maybe some of the upper-end hasn’t really taken-off but there’s a lot of first-time home owners are going back in and some entry-level stuff taking off,” Schmitt said.
Okay, that wasn’t the rosiest news, but this last sentence raised my eyebrows;
City officials say new developer fee will raise more than $6 million a year. Another fee related to the 2nd penny sales tax could also generate another $4 million for the city to use on arterial upgrades.
Huh? Either the interviewer got it completely wrong or Schmidt is once again throwing fuzzy math out there (which would be no surprise). When the 2nd penny was increased the city specifically said the fees would generate $5 million and the tax increase would generate $5 million. They also said that the .08% would go directly to the arterial roads. Now it seems that extra .08% doesn’t exist anymore it’s just whatever the city decides to spend. Could be $5 million, could be $4 million or it could be $20 million. Who knows? Obviously the City Planner doesn’t. As I said all along, the arterial road projects were simply an excuse for the city to max out our taxes. One of the main reasons the tax increase WAS NOT needed is because the city already was taking .92% that they WERE SUPPOSED to be spending on the roads. Where was that money going?